Sports Geniuses
Sports Geniuses was a Jeopardy!-like sports game show. It was the second game show to air on FSN. Gameplay Three contestants played a sports trivia game for big prizes. Rounds 1 & 2 In the first two rounds, the three contestants faced a game board with four little monitors & one big monitor below them. Housed in each monitor was a sports category with five questions of increasing point value. A player in control would choose a category & point value, then host Matt posed the chosen question to all three players. The first player to buzz-in with a correct answer won the points & control of the board. In the second round each incorrect answer incurred a penalty. Point Values Here are the point values for each round: *'Round 1' – Values ranged from 10 to 50 points in 10-point increments. *'Round 2' – Values were doubled in this round, meaning they ranged from 20 to 100 points in 20-point increments. Panasonic Double Play In Round 1, behind two of the point values were special questions called "Panasonic Double Plays". Those questions came with a video clip. The first player to answer the video questions right won a chance to double the points by answering a follow-up question. 30 Second Blitz At the end of Round 1, all three contestants played a speed round which consisted of seven pictures of sports athletes. Each time a player buzzed in and identified the athlete, he scored 30 points. True to it's name, this round lasted for 30 seconds. The Shaft In Round 2, the player in last place won first possession of "The Shaft" (which was a silver shaft of a baseball bat, hence the name). As soon as a player who owned "The Shaft" heard a question, that player could use it to force either of his two opponents to answer that question. "The Shaft" stayed in play until it was given to a player who used it once before. In addition, a special guest athlete or other sports personality would appear to read questions in one of the four categories. Home Viewer Question At the end of Round 2, a home viewer winner of an interactive game on the show's website was asked a question about his/her favorite sports team posed by Sal Iacano (the real-life cousin of former Win Ben Stein's Money co-host & current late night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel). A correct answer to that question won a prize. ---- The two players with the highest scores at the end of Round 2 moved on to the final round. Final Round In the final round, the two finalists faced-off in a series of categories with multiple answers to them. On each category, the two survivors went back and forth naming items that fit the subject; as soon as one of the players gave an incorrect answer, repeated one or ran out of time, the other player won the category. Each category had a pot which increased by 10 points for each correct answer given; the first category started at 100 points, the base value grew by 25 for each new category played. The winner of each category won all the points in the pot. Categories continued coming into play until time ran out. As soon as time ran out, the player with the most points won the game & a prize package. Tournament At the end of Sports Geniuses' run, the show invited back its biggest winners to compete in an invitational tournament for a chance at a new truck and trips to each of the four major American sports' championships (the World Series, Super Bowl, NBA Finals and Stanley Cup Finals). Daniel Katz won the tournament. Links Official Website for Sports Geniuses Rules for Sports Geniuses The Sports Game Show Page: Sports Geniuses YouTube Video Championship Finale Category:Sport Category:Themed Quiz Category:20th Century Fox Television Category:Disney/ABC Television Category:Short-Running Category:Flops Category:2000 premieres Category:2000 endings